Bad Karma

MAY 2004 - Skepticism in Pakistan often assumes startling proportions. Some years back, there were widespread reports in the print media that cases of gastroenteritis in the Rawalpindi-Islamabad region had reached alarming levels and water pollution was at an all time high. There were many people who claimed that this was a scare tactic to ensure that people start buying branded water so that a few businessmen are able to milk the consumers – or in this case, water the consumers and make windfall profits. Whether this was true or not is still debatable and the market has over 50 brands of water, from one end of the country to the other, almost all of which is unfit for man or beast.

However, the recent findings of four scientists of Pakistan can hardly be a matter of debate. Professors Khuhawar, Leghari, Qazi and Kolachi of the Institute of Chemistry, University of Sindh and Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, have conclusively established that water taken from the Kotri Barrage of the great river Indus is no longer fit for drinking. The learned professors – one assumes they are real and have genuine degrees and actually work in the universities with which they are associated, have said that the quality of the river water which has been good for over 25 years has in recent weeks declined to a level where it is dangerous for human beings. The levels of conductivity of the tested water is high – we all have to assume that the professors are right in ringing alarm bells in such a case and the presence of ‘foreign ingredients’ I suppose in the same manner of speaking as ‘foreign elements’ in Wana, are three times as high as the standard set by the WHO. The report which was a good two weeks back, went on to warn the readers that consumption of this water could cause Hepatitis A, Typhoid, Diarrhoea and other stomach diseases and related ailments, some minor but most, serious. The professors went on to say that the polluted water was just as dangerous for animals and would also contaminate fruits, vegetables and milk. Even as this report was made public, reports of increasing cases of gastroenteritis were beginning to be reported from Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Kotri and other places. Since then, over 1800 people are hospitalized, if press reports are accurate and already about seven people have died. Probably more will. The professors were of the view that unless 100,000 cusecs of fresh water is released in the Indus for at least 15 days, the situation would only get worse. It has.

Into this oft-repeated scene jumps in the water mafia. What else can one call it? Swiftly and like they have been doing for many years now, they have flooded the Sindh market, specifically the affected areas, with substandard packaged water that’s only made matters worse. At best this is ordinary tap water, which is pumped into containers, big and small, is sealed and a few stickers are slapped on to it and then the market forces take over. Because the people are scared and worried, they buy the products, break open a seal and take a long, thirst quenching drink, sure that what they are consuming is pure and fit for consumption. In the case of Sindh, this supplying of adulterated goods is nothing new because the story is repeated right across Pakistan every day. That’s the way it has been – almost always except that now more and more citizens are involved in this shady business, playing with the lives of people and making windfall profits in the bargain. It is now far too difficult for this government or any of the others that will succeed it, to actually solve the dilemma that confronts our rivers. The government neither has the will, the time or the heart to attend to such minor issues as polluted rivers. Take a drive across Islamabad and you will arrive at the same conclusion. Slow, leisurely pace of life, palatial offices and homes, many with awe-inspiring views of green forests and dappled sunshine playing across the gentle hills, tinted glasses to keep the glare out and retain the 19 degree comfortably cold room temperatures and freshly brewed coffee served by ubiquitous liveried slaves. Hell, where the heck is Jamshoro and is it the name of a new jam or some fossil discovered by Dr. Akbar S. Ahmed? And the river is polluted? What nonsense or as you hear so often now, ‘You nonsense.’ Damn press again. Creating problems again. Unreliable reporting. Not enough positive and constructive reporting that showcases the wonderful work being done. All this and more is the predictable reaction that is if there is a reaction. In most cases, there is no reaction because there is no occasion for one. Bad reports create bad karma and are studiously ignored, a game at which all who breathe Islamabad-air, are quickly and thoroughly adept. Not that the provincial metropolis with their chandeliers, wall to wall plush carpeting and cold air hissing machines are any better. Here too, the larger picture is the one where they look good. Issues such as polluted rivers and polluted products simply do not find any takers. These are the lost causes of Pakistan and as long as they have their Perriers and Evians it does not matter in the least what the Hyderabadians are drinking. Why don’t they boil the water before they drink it, stupid fools? Damn natives. Never learn anything.

Last week looking at the river Ravi at 60 kph I kept wondering how much of it was Samnabad’s soul-scarring open sewer that flows at a speed only thick muck can flow and how much of it was the collective poison of the 200 plus industries that now are the Ravi’s main tributaries and whose flows remain unchecked because these businesses are run by cronies of those who are supposed to implement the law. Obvious conclusions are that things will remain as they are and any change that will happen is when the pollution levels rise further and another 100 factories are allowed to come up and start dumping their refuse into the river. That’s industrial progress in case you didn’t know. The case of Kasur’s deformed children that hit the national newspapers some years back sent all public-do-gooders rushing to the scene. It made a good photo op and the resounding pledges that were aired made good headlines, but all too soon there was another show in another part of the country and since there was bound to be positive media coverage, all those who were the Kasur-fighters, moved to new pastures. Has that horrible epidemic that damaged lives permanently been resolved? Has anyone gone to jail? No that’s too wild. Has anyone been apprehended? No that’s too wild. Has anyone been fined? And since this is all make believe, has anyone turned off the cursed effluents that have permeated the water table and caused such havoc? Of course not. How can Punjab’s industrial growth be victimized?

You see the good laws are all there. There is even an Environmental Ministry though what it does is beyond most of us. Maybe it ensures that Shoaib Akhtar gets to breathe better air than the rest of us because he is such a ‘match winner’. Who can tell? Stranger things happen here. There are enough laws here to fill the Atlantic Ocean but there is no one to execute them. Those who should be doing it are doing something else which in our parlance means, nothing. We lurch from one disaster to another and simply take it in our stride. The Ojri Camp, the big hush-hush is long forgotten but ask that from those who lost family members. The Tasman Spirit breakup is over, the Greek crew allowed to go home, but the navy’s crisp white uniform was not allowed to be tainted with tell tale specks of oil. They guard our seas, remember even when they retire. The poor and the wretched people of Sindh, the ones that find no mention in Mr. Shaukat Aziz’s debonair world of designer suits, will simply suffer grievously and many will perish, but the minister who represents them and the various officials who are responsible for this callous display of public apathy, will flourish on.